On behalf of Interim Dean Jennifer Setlow:
I am pleased to announce the appointment of Colleen Rua, PhD to the role of Acting Associate Dean of Research and Strategic Initiatives. Her appointment in this role began on July 1, 2024.
As Acting Associate Dean of Research and Strategic Initiatives, Dr. Rua’s administrative duties will be to lead, expand, and coordinate the College of the Arts’ body of research and grant funding by:
- Managing current research and supporting new research and grant opportunities at the school, center, and institute level.
- Leading grant writing at the college level and managing workflow for college-level projects.
- Assisting with COTA strategic initiatives, accreditation and program reviews.
- Overseeing COTA strategic planning and implementation, including facilities and capital planning, and managing and overseeing assessment at the college level.
- Overseeing all faculty support programs and awards.
- Representing the College of the Arts internally and externally on committees, in national dialogues, and at meetings and events.
The position will report to the Interim Dean and is part of the COTA Executive Committee.
The College of the Arts conducted a national search, chaired by School of Music director, Dr. Kevin Orr, to select the college’s Acting Associate Dean of Research, drawing a highly competitive pool of qualified applicants. Final-round candidates were invited to the University of Florida campus, where they made presentations and engaged in Q&A sessions that were open to participation from all COTA faculty and staff.
It has been my pleasure to work with Colleen since she first joined UF and the College of the Arts in August 2019, when she was hired as an assistant professor in theatre studies at the School of Theatre and Dance. She is also an affiliate faculty member in COTA’s Center for Arts, Migration and Entrepreneurship and the Center for Arts in Medicine, as well as UF’s Center for Latin American Studies. In August 2023, she was appointed as SOTD’s Acting Associate Director.
She holds a PhD in Drama from Tufts University and an MA in Theatre Education from Emerson College. Her research interests include Latinx Theatre/Contemporary Puerto Rican Theatre, Immersive Theatre, the American Musical, and Applied Theatre.
Colleen’s recent book, Performance, Trauma and Puerto Rico in Musical Theatre (Routledge, 2023), cites the musicals West Side Story, The Capeman, In the Heights, and Hamilton, and draws from the post-Hurricane Maria work of “performers of care” in the Puerto Rican theatre collective, Y no había luz, to explore how theatre practitioners and associated artists leverage performance to transform experiences of trauma through “linguistic, ritual, and geographic interventions.”
In SOTD, Colleen co-leads a project titled Disaster and the Body with assistant professor of dance, Dr. Rachel Carrico, that explores how artists aid communities through recovery following disaster events. Since 2020, Disaster and the Body has connected UF students with professional artists, including members of Y no había luz, to develop research and applicable practices that deploy artmaking as a modality for healing in disaster-impacted communities. Learn more about the project here.
Colleen has presented at the International Federation for Theatre Research, the American Society for Theatre Research, the Association for Theatre in Higher Education, and Imagining America. She has published articles with Performance Research and Theatre History Studies and book chapters in Milestones in Musical Theatre and American Literature in Transition: 1980-1990.
Colleen’s directing credits at SOTD include ...And Jesus Moonwalks the Mississippi, Marisol, Yemaya’s Belly and The Day the Music Came Back.
Prior to joining UF SOTD faculty, Colleen was assistant, then associate professor at Bridgewater State University where she co-founded and was the artistic director of Bridgewater’s Family Performing Arts Center. Colleen was also in a visiting position at Northwestern University, and taught courses at MIT, Tufts University, and UMass Lowell. She has also served as the artistic director of Arlington Children’s Theatre (2003-2013) and as co-founder and co-artistic director of SouthCity Theatre, in residence at Boston’s Factory Theatre.
In addition to her outstanding research activities and CV highlights as an artistic director, Colleen is an exemplary educator. She was the recipient of the UF College of the Arts Teacher of the Year Award (2021-2022), Bridgewater State University’s 2019 Presidential Award for Distinguished Teaching, and was the 2015 recipient the New England Theatre Conference's Leonidas Nikole Award for Theatre Educator of the Year.
Colleen’s passion for the full spectrum of research in arts and design combined with her deep experience in bringing together collaborative teams helped make her an exceptional choice for this position.
I would like to extend my thanks to the search committee: Kevin Orr (chair), Frederick Van Amstel, Megan Baucom, Xan Burley, Oṣubi Craig, Tim Difato, and Megan Baucom. Thank you, also, to Piper Call for providing administrative support through the search process, and to all COTA faculty and staff who attended and participated in candidate presentations and Q&As.
Please join me in congratulating Colleen on her appointment as the Acting Associate Dean of Research and Strategic Initiatives.
Jennifer Setlow
Interim Dean, UF College of the Arts
Pronouns: she/her/hers
